Jan Garbarek

Jan Garbarek (born 4 March 1947) is a Norwegian jazz saxophonist, who is also active in classical music and world music.
Garbarek was born in Mysen, Østfold, southeastern Norway, the only child of a former Polish prisoner of war, Czesław Garbarek, and a Norwegian farmer's daughter. He grew up in Oslo, stateless until the age of seven, as there was no automatic grant of citizenship in Norway at the time. When he was 21, he married the author Vigdis Garbarek. He is the father of musician and composer Anja Garbarek.
Biography
Garbarek's style incorporates a sharp-edged tone, long, keening, sustained notes, and generous use of silence. He began his recording career in the late 1960s, notably featuring on recordings by the American jazz composer George Russell (such as Electronic Sonata for Souls Loved by Nature). By 1973 he had turned his back on the harsh dissonances of avant-garde jazz, retaining only his tone from his previous approach. Garbarek gained wider recognition through his work with pianist Keith Jarrett's European Quartet which released the albums Belonging (1974), My Song (1977), and the live recordings Personal Mountains (1979), and Nude Ants (1979). He was also a featured soloist on Jarrett's orchestral works Luminessence (1974) and Arbour Zena (1975).
As a composer, Garbarek tends to draw heavily from Scandinavian folk melodies, a legacy of his Ayler influence. He is also a pioneer of ambient jazz composition, most notably on his 1976 album Dis a collaboration with guitarist Ralph Towner, that featured the distinctive sound of a wind harp on several tracks. This textural approach, which rejects traditional notions of thematic improvisation (best exemplified by Sonny Rollins) in favour of a style described by critics Richard Cook and Brian Morton as "sculptural in its impact", has been critically divisive. Garbarek's more meandering recordings are often labeled as new-age music, or spiritual ancestors thereof. Other experiments have included setting a collection of poems of Olav H. Hauge to music, with a single saxophone complementing a full mixed choir; this has led to notable performances with Grex Vocalis.
In the 1980s, Garbarek's music began to incorporate synthesizers and elements of world music. He has collaborated with Indian and Pakistani musicians such as Trilok Gurtu, Zakir Hussain, Hariprasad Chaurasia, and Bade Fateh Ali Khan. Garbarek is credited for composing original music for the 2000 film Kippur.
In 1994, during the heightened popularity of Gregorian chant, his album Officium, a collaboration with early music vocal performers from the Hilliard Ensemble, became one of ECM's biggest-selling albums of all time, reaching the pop charts in several European countries and was followed by a sequel, Mnemosyne, in 1999. Officium Novum, another sequel album, was released in September 2010. In 2005, his album In Praise of Dreams was nominated for a Grammy Award. Garbarek's first live album Dresden was released in 2009.
Awards and honors
1999: Knight 1st Class of the Order of St. Olav
2004: Norwegian Arts Council Award
2014: Willy Brandt Award
Discography
As leader
1967: Til Vigdis (Norsk Jazzforbund, 1967)
1969: Esoteric Circle (Flying Dutchman, 1971)
1970: Afric Pepperbird (ECM, 1971)
1970: Hav with Jan Erik Vold (Philips, 1971)
1971: Sart with Terje Rypdal (ECM, 1971)
1972: Triptykon (ECM, 1973)
1973: Witchi-Tai-To with Bobo Stenson (ECM, 1974)
1975: Dansere with Bobo Stenson (ECM, 1976)
1976: Dis with Ralph Towner (ECM, 1977)
1977: Places with Bill Connors (ECM, 1978)
1978: Photo with Blue Sky, White Cloud, Wires, Windows and a Red Roof with Bill Connors (ECM, 1979)
1979: Aftenland with Kjell Johnsen (ECM, 1980)
1980: Eventyr with John Abercrombie and Naná Vasconcelos (ECM, 1981)
1981: Paths, Prints with Bill Frisell (ECM, 1982)
1983: Wayfarer with Bill Frisell and Eberhard Weber (ECM, 1983)
1984: It's OK to Listen to the Gray Voice with David Torn (ECM, 1985)
1986: All Those Born with Wings (ECM, 1987)
1988: Legend of the Seven Dreams with Rainer Brüninghaus (ECM, 1988)
1989: with Agnes Buen Garnås (ECM, 1989)
1990: I Took Up the Runes (ECM, 1990)
1990: Ragas and Sagas with Ustad Fateh Ali Khan (ECM, 1992)
1991: StAR with Miroslav Vitouš (ECM, 1991)
1992: Stemmer with Vigdis Garbarek (NRK, 1992)
1992: Madar with Anouar Brahem and Shaukat Hussain (ECM, 1994)
1992: Twelve Moons (ECM, 1993)
1994: Officium with the Hilliard Ensemble (ECM, 1994) – live
1994: Trollsyn (TrollCD, 1994) – for promotion
1995: Visible World (ECM, 1996)
1998: Rites (ECM, 1998)
1998: Mnemosyne with the Hilliard Ensemble (ECM, 1999)
2003: In Praise of Dreams (ECM, 2004)
2003: Dresden (ECM, 2009) – live
2009: Officium Novum with the Hilliard Ensemble (ECM, 2010) – live
2014: Remember Me, My Dear with the Hilliard Ensemble (ECM, 2019)
As sideman
With Egberto Gismonti
Sol Do Meio Dia (ECM, 1977)
With Charlie Haden and Egberto Gismonti
Magico (ECM, 1980)
Folk Songs (ECM, 1981)
Magico: Carta de Amor (ECM, 2012)
With Keith Jarrett
1974: Belonging (ECM, 1974)
1974: Luminessence (ECM, 1975)
1975: Arbour Zena (ECM, 1976)
1977: My Song (ECM, 1978)
1979: Personal Mountains (ECM, 1989)
1979: Sleeper (ECM, 2012)
1979: Nude Ants (ECM, 1980)
With Eleni Karaindrou
Music For Films (ECM, 1991)
Concert in Athens (ECM, 2013)
With Karin Krog
Jazz Moments (1966)
Joy (1968)
With Gary Peacock
December Poems (ECM, 1977)
Voice from the Past - Paradigm (ECM, 1981)
Guamba (ECM, 1987)
With Terje Rypdal
Bleak House (Polydor, 1968)
Terje Rypdal (ECM, 1971)
With George Russell
Electronic Sonata for Souls Loved by Nature (Flying Dutchman, 1969)
Trip to Prillarguri (Soul Note, 1970)
Listen to the Silence (Soul Note, 1971)
With L. Shankar
Vision (1983)
Song for Everyone (1985)
With Ralph Towner
Solstice (ECM, 1975)
Solstice/Sound and Shadows (ECM, 1977)
With Jan Erik Vold
Hav (Philips, 1971)
Ingentings Bjeller (Polydor, 1977)
With Miroslav Vitouš
Universal Syncopations (ECM, 2003)
Atmos (ECM, 1992)
With Eberhard Weber
Chorus (ECM, 1984)
Stages of a Long Journey (ECM, 2007)
Résumé (ECM, 2012)
Hommage à Eberhard Weber (ECM, 2015)
With others
Bill Connors, Of Mist and Melting (ECM, 1977)
David Darling, Cycles (ECM, 1981)
Paul Giger, Alpstein (ECM, 1991)
Trilok Gurtu, Living Magic (1990)
Zakir Hussain, Making Music with John McLaughlin and Hariprasad Chaurasia (ECM, 1986)
Giya Kancheli, Caris Mere (1995)
Kim Kashkashian, Monodia (ECM, 2004) – rec. 2002
Manu Katché, Neighbourhood (ECM, 2005) – rec. 2004
Art Lande, Red Lanta (ECM, 1974) – rec. 1973
Marilyn Mazur, Elixir (ECM, 2008) – rec. 2005
Kenny Wheeler, Deer Wan (ECM, 1978) – rec. 1977
References
External links
Jan Garbarek on ECM Records
Jan Garbarek Group @ Theatre Lycabettus concert review, Greece
1947 births
Living people
People from Eidsberg
Avant-garde jazz musicians
Spellemannprisen winners
Norwegian people of Polish descent
Freedom Records artists
ECM Records artists
20th-century Norwegian saxophonists
21st-century Norwegian saxophonists
Norwegian jazz saxophonists
Norwegian jazz composers
20th-century Norwegian male musicians
21st-century Norwegian male musicians